1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, article of manufacture, and propagated signal which permits on-line electronic ordering of photographic prints and products with photographic images printed thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a number of on-line photo-services, for example, www.pix.com which provides photographic gift services offered by Eastman Kodak, which integrate consumer photographic software, such as Microsoft PictureIt?®.
A conventional on-line system 100 which provides these on-line photo-services is illustrated in FIG. 1. The system 100 of FIG. 1 includes a computer 110 for example, (a PC), a photofinishing lab 130, and a third party fulfillment house 140, which are connected to the computer 110 by the internet 120. The computer 110 which is operated by a consumer 1, includes an operating system, known to one of ordinary skill in the art, for example, Microsoft Windows 95 (or an upward compatible version) or Windows NT 4.0 (or an upward compatible version). The operating system includes a file system 112. The computer 110 also runs a photo editing application 114 (Microsoft PictureIt!® is one example), which is compatible with the operating system. Digital images which are stored in the file system 112 are edited by the consumer 1 using the computer photo editing application 114. The edited images are uploaded to a photofinishing lab 130 and/or the third party fulfillment house 140, via the internet 120. The photofinishing lab 130 produces high quality images which are delivered to the consumer 1, via means other than the internet 120 (mail, courier, etc.). The third party fulfillment house 140 produces items, such as mugs, T-shirts, etc., with the desired image printed thereon, and provides the desired goods to the consumer 1, also via the other means. The photofinishing lab 130 and the third party fulfillment house 140 also provide pricing and merchandise availability information to the consumer 1 at the computer 110, via the internet 120.
The above services, however, have a variety of drawbacks. In particular, users, have photographs in digital form on their desktop computers at home or work. However, the users cannot easily convert the digital photographs to high quality prints offered by consumer photofinishing services. In particular, in the Kodak system, an additional computer program (Microsoft PictureIt!®) is required in order to order high quality prints.